Monday, December 29, 2014

Book Review: Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

The Good:

Truly, this is a wonderful writer whose other books I will
seek out. I have read several criticisms of the organization and flow of this
book, which presents a series of vignettes featuring a small town in Maine.
There are several leaps in time and many points-of-view, some which return
again and again (as in the case of the main protagonist, Olive Kitteridge), and
some whom we hear from only once. This style of narrative elicits criticism
from several readers: the book “jumps around,” the narrative is “too confusing,”
and the story is “all jumbled.” There is nothing more infuriating, in my
opinion, than a writer who dumbs down a narrative. In short, appreciate an
excellent writer who isn’t spoon-feeding you a story. Ms. Strout is an
intelligent author, and I don’t think it unreasonable that she asks you to be
an intelligent reader.

I think if you were an alien from another planet and you were trying to understand American culture, I would suggest this book. It's such a wonderful snapshot of an America that is erased in such a short amount of time. Nowhere is safe from the march of the corporation, not even small-town Maine. That's not the main theme of this novel, but it's an interesting sideline. The novel is primarily about love and anger, American-style, and growing old in a marriage. And I really can't think of another novelist that I think captures so well the emotional hills and valleys that characterize most marriages (with the exception of Anne Tyler). I very much appreciated the span of time, which some readers resented, because you can't capture that resignation and hope that threatens and saves most marriages unless you look at the long haul.

I can’t help but writer spoiler-ish reviews. I don’t do the
abstract very well. There are reasons why some books work and some books don’t,
and usually those issues are concrete. So you are warned.

As much as I admire this book, I have a problem with it, and
it’s not a small problem. In fact, it jeopardizes much of the admiration that I
have for this work. I really did love the majority of it. In fact, the whole
book worked for me until the last six pages. Because in the last six pages the
author undermines, literally pulls the rug out from under the reader, by
casually mentioning that Olive, who we have come to understand is a difficult
woman (at best), but someone who might (and I qualify that) be a woman who deserves
our sympathy—our allegiance even—is a woman who is guilty of child abuse. Now,
I might be totally off base and this issue was reared on page 40, and if that’s
the case and I missed it, then this review is pointless. However, if not…

There is another woman in this book who is guilty of child
abuse, and she’s written as basically evil and crazy. Her abuse is front and
center and we hate her. Also, as a reader we are supposed to confront this
issue while all the time knowing that Olive was a teacher. Now, her teaching is
really only a shadow in the story, and I’m sure a lot of teachers abuse their
own children, but it’s an issue that should be dealt with. The teacher who is
really unfit to teach might have been a good parallel story with the mother who
is unfit to mother. I think this should have been explored, but then how can it
be when this abuse is hidden from the reader until the very end of the book?

With the knowledge of her abuse kept firmly from the reader,
we are willing to cut Olive some slack despite her truly flinty and uncompromising
approach to nearly everyone. In this case, however, it doesn’t just undermine
our relationship with her. And yes, I use that term relationship because that
is what readers have with characters: a relationship. Some shades in a
character are forgivable, some are not. Beating a child is not. Or at least you
can’t throw that in like it’s just something that happens. On occasion. On a
Tuesday, for instance. Or maybe the odd Wednesday.

Yes, there is a hint of her abuse when her son marries a
totally inappropriate woman, and Olive overhears conversations she isn’t
supposed to hear (and this was one instance where I thought, oh, Ms. Strout,
you are so much better than to use the “eavesdroppers hear no good of
themselves” trope). Except that this woman is written as an interloper, a suspect
character, not someone we want to believe. At this point we are more or less on
Team Olive, if reluctantly. But when Olive admits that she beat her son (six pages
from the end of the novel), then it’s a total slap in the face. It’s like the
author has built up all of our sympathies for this woman up to a point, and
then we are supposed to forgive her. Bullshit. I don’t forgive Olive and I
don’t forgive the author. This is unfair. This calls into question the
characterization of, at a minimum, the son and Henry, Olive’s husband. He stood
around, benign, loving Henry, and let his wife beat the shit out of their son?
We are supposed to believe this? There is nothing in his brief narratives that
even hints at this rather great moral failing. That he feels guilt. That he
can’t protect his son and that he hates himself because of it. Henry’s entire character
is called into question. And her son never calls his mother on her awful
behavior, but sends her off with a sort of Zen-like benediction, oh well, if that’s
what you want, go. I’m free of you. Free of what? Well, we discover what.

No. I’m sorry. You want to write a book about a flinty,
uncompromising woman who scorns nearly everyone who comes within her reach
because her lover rejected her love by running into a tree, then you admit that
she beat her son. You want to create sympathy for Olive weeping over an
anorexic waif, a stranger, because she’s looking for love, and yet has no
compunction about smacking her child, then you lay it out there, and
you write that book so that we DO sympathize with this woman. You don’t throw
this at the reader six pages before the end of a novel.

In my opinion, it’s a repudiation of the really lovely
writing that precedes the previous 267 pages. I think that Ms. Strout is such a
wonderful writer that she could have written a book with such conflicting
loyalties and still earn our admiration, but she didn’t. She kept this secret
pretty close to the vest and then clubbed us over the metaphorical head with it
right at the end of the book.

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About Me

Used to be a pastry chef, had kids, food and kids don't work very well. Then decided to write mystery based on pastry chef protag. Took five years to find publisher. First book, Beat Until Stiff, nominated for an Agatha for Best First. Lost (cries). Booksense pick (claps). Second book, Roux Morgue, received starred review in PW. GO ME! Have finished third book and am desperately trying to find agent to sell it. On desperate hunt for pronouns.
Email me: clairemjohnson@gmail.com